


Lin's Scars

by roaming



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-24
Updated: 2012-04-24
Packaged: 2017-11-04 05:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/390426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roaming/pseuds/roaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toph comforts a teenage Lin after Tenzin accidentally gives her some scars. Post-ATLA. Pre-Korra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lin's Scars

Clutching her right cheek, Lin Bei Fong runs to the end of the island. As she hovers over the edge, she tries to find her own reflection in the water, but her teardrops quickly distort any semblance of a clear image.

She knows that the scar is going to look terrible. It already  _feels_ terrible. And she knows that she'll never talk to Tenzin again. As she sits down at the edge of the lake, with her knees protectively propped underneath her chin, she attempts to stop crying because the salt in her tears burn the open cuts on her cheek.

"Lin?" She can hardly feel a motion in the earth beneath her and she might have ignored it if her extensive Earthbending training hadn't honed her acute senses. She hears the shift in the land and, to her, it is louder than the voice of her own mother. "Lin."

Toph sits beside her teenaged daughter. "Tenzin says that he's very, very, very sorry."

Lin bites her lip and moves away from her, making a defiant sound of disbelief under her breath.

"He said that he didn't know that you were behind him," Toph pauses, extending her hand to Lin's face. Lin turns away and Toph rests her hand over her daughter's hand. "You know he wouldn't have knowingly sent that gust of air towards you and thrown you into the rocks. Aunt Katara can heal your cheek if it's hurting."

"It's going to leave a scar," Lin murmurs defeatedly, consciously remembering every pang of hurt in her cheek that erupts as she moves her lips.

Toph chuckles lightly. "Vanity? Now? You bend dirt, you play in dirt, you practically bathe in dirt."

"That's not the same. I can wash off dirt. A scar is forever!" Lin crosses her arms over her chest and stomps her foot, rapidly regressing into the defiant toddler that used to Earthbend dirt into Tenzin's diaper.

"Zuko has a scar and, if I'm remembering correctly, he did pretty well for himself. He's in politics or something," Toph jokes.

"But — but," Lin blushes scarlet. Toph raises an eyebrow.

"I may not be a Firebender, but I can still feel the heat coming off of your face. What is it, pipsqueak?"

Lin mumbles something incoherently.

"Your poor mother is already blind. You don't have to make her think that she's deaf, too," Toph says as the corner of her mouth rises.

Lin sighs loudly, then whispers, "Bumi said he only likes pretty girls."

Toph's eyebrows fly into her hairline as she suppresses the urge to laugh.

"Mo-o-om," Lin elongates the word to convey her annoyance.

"Bumi's definition of pretty is  _clean_ ," Toph ruffles her daughter's hair. Lin shrugs. "Trust me, kiddo, he thinks you're a catch. He's always telling his mother about how he's so impressed with your bending and how he wishes that he were an Earthbender so he could torture Tenzin the same way you do."

A small smile eclipses the doubt on Lin's face. "Really?"

"Really," Toph wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Now let's go see if Katara can do something about the stinging."

Lin's smile grows into a large grin as both Bei Fongs stand and turn towards the great house.

"Besides, you still look pretty to me," Toph grins and places her lips on the crown of her daughter's head, as they both laugh.


End file.
